Outside Africa, Neanderthals And Sapiens Were Flirts

Convergence zones are another type of boundary: this is the subduction zone where tectonic plate topped with an oceanic

crust sinks beneath a continent. The Pacific Rim is surrounded by subduction zone at the origin of volcanoes that form the famous Pacific Ring of Fire. Finally, in some places, two tectonic plates slide abutting one another along and create a zone of fault like the San Andreas Fault, California.

Characteristics of the remains of the techniques used by Neanderthal Man were found near the Arctic Circle. Their dating, estimated at 8000 years after the disappearance of theoretical Neanderthal Man, raises many questions.

A culture ever discovered around the Arctic Circle

The Mousterian culture, which developed during the Middle Paleolithic (-300 000 to -33 000 years), is distinguished by the use of a very diverse range of tools on flakes. In Europe the use of these tools has been exclusively associated with Neanderthal Man but the excavations indicate that the Middle East of the Homo Sapiens also have employees.

In the journal Science, an international team, involving researchers from CNRS, this time described the presence of this culture located at 1000 km further north than the known limit so far, according Ludovic Slimak, a signatory to Article.

The remains were discovered on the site Byzovaya located in northern Russia in the immediate vicinity of the Arctic Circle on the current location of the Komi Republic. They consist of bones of mammoths and reindeer as well as flint. The bones bear the marks of modifications due to butchery activities of the Mousterian hunters. Through the use of carbon-14 and a technology of optical stimulation, the researchers were able to date them accurately.